...Imagine yourself dead. Swallow fifty aspirin, and then once you realize it was a mistake, take a walk. A five-block, dizzy, blurry walk to the grocery store, where surely someone will save you. Susanna Kaysen was teetering on the edge of life and death but worse, she was standing directly on the blurred line between sanity and insanity. In her memoir, Girl, Interrupted she shares her psychiatric hospital experiences that followed her attempted suicide. Girl, Interrupted was published in 1993, over twenty years after her two-year stay at McLean Psychiatric Hospital. In 1999, this journal of Susanna’s life was adapted into a Hollywood drama-filled movie. The movie Girl, Interrupted, directed by James Mangold, is loosely based on the book. Both the book and the movie are enjoyable, but the book is better because it is a truthful description of real events. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen provides first hand insight into the lives of patients at McLean Hospital. Much like the scattered thoughts in her brain, the book does not have a true...
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...Signs and symptoms of BPD presented in the film will be identified and categorized into the four applicable criteria segments of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) IV. Under the affective criteria, persons diagnosed with BPD show symptoms of lack of anger management, long-term “feelings of emptiness,” and emotional instability. The affective criteria are visible in Susanna through her outbursts at nurses and Lisa, her nervous breakdown, depression, her lack of motivation at the beginning of the film, her refusal to follow directions, and her rebellion. The cognitive criteria describe the paranoia and dissociative symptoms patients experience. Susanna claims to experience seeing things others cannot see and not having bones in her hands at times. In terms of the behavioral criteria, all suicidal actions and impulsive behavior are considered; Susanna had attempted suicide by combining Aspirin and Vodka and had dark bruises on her wrists. In the film, Susanna finds a record of her therapy that stated the psychiatrist has diagnosed her with having psychoneurotic depressive reactions, being highly intelligent but in denial of conditions, and having a personality pattern disturbance, being resistant, and schizophrenic. Susanna’s...
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...Section 1: Borderline personality disorder is a serious mental illness marked by unstable moods, behavior, and relationships. Because some people with severe borderline personality disorder have brief psychotic episodes, experts originally thought of this illness as atypical, or borderline, versions of other mental disorders. While mental health experts now generally agree that the name "borderline personality disorder" is misleading, a more accurate term does not exist yet. The symptoms of borderline disorder were first described in the medical literature over 3000 years ago. The disorder has gained increasing visibility over the past three decades. The full spectrum of symptoms of borderline disorder typically first appears in the teenage years and early twenties. Although some children with significant behavioral disturbances may develop readily diagnosable borderline disorder as they get older, it is very difficult to make the diagnosis in children. It is estimated that more than 14 million American adults, distributed equally between men and women, have borderline personality disorder. It is more common than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder: an estimated 11% of outpatients, 20% of psychiatric inpatients and 6% of primary care visits meet the criteria for the disorder. Obtaining an accurate diagnosis can be difficult. As ,ost patients with bipolar disorder go years before receiving an appropriate diagnosis and starting mood stabilizers[1] As with all personality disorders...
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...Character Analysis: Girl, Interrupted The secondary main character within the film Girl, Interrupted (James Mangold, 1999) is Lisa who is played by Angelina Jolie. Lisa is a rebellious patient of Claymore Mental Institution in Massachusetts circa 1960. She is considered a sociopath in the medical field, and proves so by consistently pushing the boundaries of Claymore Institution in numerous ways. Lisa was identified as a sociopath due to her inability to feel remorse or sadness regardless of her behaviour. She frequently disobeys the staff as well as maintains a toxic relationship over the patients in which she controls and torments them for her own enjoyment. Despite her many destructive acts and rule-breaking attitude, Lisa is considerably unpredictable as she can also be kind and motherly to the patients. Lisa is an attractive caucasian female with blonde, choppy hair and grey blue eyes. She has a track record of running away from Claymore, where food supply is presumably low, which explains her look of malnourishment. Lisa has a tall and lanky frame in which she is around 5'7 and weighs 130 lbs. Lisa has a distinctive personality, as it is controlling and overpowering in comparison to her fellow patients. Although Lisa tends to act in such a cold manor that she seems inhuman, she does have a breakdown as she is confronted with her faults, which proves that despite her title as a sociopath, she does hold human emotion regardless of how much she desires to suppress sadness...
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...The Virgin Suicides, is a book written by Jeffrey Eugenides, Sofia Coppola years later took the text and brought it to screen. Coppola stays true to Eugenides’ novel, maintaining the haunting quality of the story. In Eugenides’ novel, the characters often exist only as fragments of description, while the presence of actors in the film almost automatically makes the characters feel more fleshed out, even without additional dialogue. We are able to learn more about them simply from seeing their emotions and actions. For example, the father is more sympathetic in the film but in the novel seems rude and strict but his character in the movie is very different from what you read. In the film we see him as the quieter character in comparison to...
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...The movie Girl,Interrupted is an intense movie that follows the journey of the lives of a group of women in a mental institution. Taken place in 1960's America, the movie is based on the life of Susanna Kaysen,, as she voluntarily checks herself into an institution after she tried to commit suicide. The movie chronicles the the life inside an institution and the many disorders the women are facing. Susanna, is a high school senior preparing to graduate, until she decides to take an entire bottle of Aspirin followed by a bottle of vodka. After this questionable act, her parents arrange for a meeting with a family friend who is an ex-therapist. Upon closer examination of Susanna, he believes that she was trying to commit suicide, even though Susanna denies the accusations. According to her parents along with her therapist, Susanna’s unconventional approach of working to further her education as well as her professional career were signs of mental instability. Her promiscuity and shoplifting were seen as warning signs indicating to the authority figures her life and leading to their assumption that she suffered from a mental illness. Being that it was the 60’s times were changing and the new generation wasn’t as conventional as the generation before them. If they were able to understand they could have chalked it up to a confused teenager during a time period of social uncertainty and revolution. The consequences to Susanna’s life that resulted because the authority...
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...of Maryland University College Abstract Many movies have portrayed characters with either a form of Bipolar disorder or a type of Personality disorder whether it is for dramatic purposes or to engage the viewer into the mindset of a psychological thriller. Whatever their reasoning, more often than not, the portrayal is inaccurate. There is however a film that I have chosen that borderlines accuracy to a degree. Girl Interrupted is based on the memoirs of an actual person who was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder. Although an adaption of her biography with the usual artistic liberties, it can be used as a case study in the theory of psychology. I intend to show the similarities between borderline personality disorder verses bipolar disorder. Susanna Kaysen, with whom the movie was based, was diagnosed as borderline back in 1967, if she were seen today by a mental health professional, would she now be considered bipolar? Borderline Personality Disorder or Bipolar Disorder Susanna Kayson was a young woman who was admitted into Mclean hospital at age 18 after a suicide attempt. A movie called Girl Interrupted was made chronicling her stay at this hospital. There she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. In the movie although they portrayed some of her symptoms accurately, it focused more on her friendship and experiences with other patients instead of her in particular. Today I am sure her diagnosis would have learned more toward a bipolar disorder...
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...of his depression, he stops taking it. When his depression recurs, he calls a suicide hotline and admits himself to a local psychiatric hospital. The film adaptation of this novel, “…is a complete mess–which is all it should be, considering it tells the story of a heavily depressed, utterly confused and at times even suicidal teenager,” (Coconi) released in 2010 by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck,...
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...Introduction The effect of 1998's Japanese film Ring can be compared to a big tsunami wave that not only became highest grossing horror film in the country, but also shuddered Taiwanese, Korean, Hong Kong film markets. Following years many publications included it to the numerous symbolic "top 10 most scary films" lists. And when Steven Spielberg bought the rights to make the Hollywood remake it was seen as official evidence that Japanese horror cinema became new trendsetter in this genre and gained cult status in the West. Nowadays with numerous follow-ups within the Ring franchise and triggered a trend of Western remakes "Ring" is viewed as exemplary illustrative Asian horror movie. I will argue that the wide success of the movie is caused not by its deep cultural ties with Japanese cinema and Japanese horror movies in particular, but because on the contrary "Ring" has little to do with its traditional background. Hideo Nakata deliberately cut off all the cultural traces in order to make cinematic language of the movie universal and cosmopolitan thus giving a way for its intercultural translation and to be easily replicated. In order to do it first I will analyze different Japanese merchandizing strategies and study the film as a media product. Second, I will briefly overlook history and main stylistic traits of Japanese horror movie genre. In my general overlook on Japanese horror cinema, I will focus on two main horror film sub-genres kaidan and ero guro and will give...
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...may be rather humorous a lot about both Susan and Kane is revealed through emotions and actions of the two. As the clip progresses it begins to become less and less humorous and then more and more painful. The singing soon becomes irritating and us the viewer becomes as sick of it as the patrons do. Then when it’s all over and we see the expression on Kane’s face, and hear Susan’s heavy breathing that we finally realize exactly what this scene represents. We enter this part of the movie not really knowing what to expect. We know that Kane’s life is beginning to fall apart, having left his first wife for Susan and loosing some of his political pull in the process. The scene begins with a close up of Susan; she is singing but is quickly interrupted by the director who is trying to correct her mistakes. The camera then tracks to him, slowly zooming out to show the hectic movements of actors and stage hands frantically running around setting up, just before the camera tilts up to focus on a stage light just overhead to further. We are then treated to a nice backstage shot right as the curtains go up, then the lights flicker on and all eyes are on Susan. This beginning is meant to mimic Kane and Susan’s relationship. The viewer knows how great a moment this must be for Susan and for a second everything seems like it’s alright. This idea is continued when the next shot shows us Kane watching from his seat, a smile slowly appearing on to his face. But behind the scenes, before the curtain...
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...Phenomenon of risky behavior: NSSI •Health behavior models and theories for understanding risky behavior Human behavior is complex and describing and predicting it continues to be a challenge in social science. Social influence, such as drugs, family, peers, media, has a great impact on development of negative behavior that would require intervention or prevention to make changes in health and behavioral habits by examining the behaviors of findings based on current research and theories /models of behavioral change. Per Heilbron et al. (2008) many current research focused on prevalent and risky group of self –harm behaviors that are growing mostly due to social, peer influence engaging in NSSI. Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is one of prevalent health behavior risks in pre-adolescence and adolescence, and many fields have offered theories and models that can be important applications for research on peer influence and change of behavior in NSSI groups for behavioral change (Heilbron et al. 2008). Behavioral theories of peer influence are one application to determine NSSI based on Social Cognitive Theory (SCT, originally social learning theory) (Ragin, 2011). Social cognitive theory (SCT) is the psychological model of behavior developed by the work of Albert Bandura (1977; 1986). SCT (Ragin (2011) suggests that cognitive processes are serious to the acquisition and regulation of behaviors, and individuals learn through modeling, direct operant reinforcement with methods...
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...Mary and Max It is 1976, an 8-year-old Mary Daisy Dinkle (Bethany Whitmore) is a lonely little girl living in Mount Waverley, Melbourne, Australia. Her relatively poor family cannot afford to buy her toys or nice clothing, and she is teased by children at her school due to an unfortunate birthmark on her forehead. Her father is distant and her alcoholic, kleptomaniac mother provides no support. The closest thing she has to a friend is the man for whom Mary collects mail, Len Hislop, a World War II veteran who lost his legs as a prisoner of war and has developed agoraphobia. One day, she decides to write a letter to someone living in New York City: by pure chance she chooses Max Jerry Horowitz (Philip Seymour Hoffman) from a telephone directory. Max turns out to be a morbidly obese 44-year-old whose various mental problems (including anxiety attacks and overeating) have left him unable to form close bonds with other people. Max decides to write back to Mary, and the two become friends. Over time, Mary's increasingly sensitive questions about the adult world give Max progressively worse anxiety attacks, and he is ultimately institutionalized. During his time there, Max is diagnosed with depression and Asperger syndrome. Now aware of why he has difficulty relating to other people, Max finds a new lease on life and resumes his correspondence with Mary. The two remain friends for the next two decades, keeping one another updated on various events in their lives. Mary (Toni Colette)...
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...he 1964 world première of “Mary Poppins” was held at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and it was the kind of spectacle for which the Disney organization had become famous. Throngs of screaming fans were greeted by Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Snow White and the dwarfs, as well as by entertainers who gestured toward the movie’s Edwardian setting: a twelve-piece pearly band, chimney-sweep dancers, valets dressed as bobbies, and a bevy of pretty Disneyland hostesses, whose traditional uniforms (kilts and black velvet riding helmets) suggested a general Englishness. Hollywood luminaries arrived in chauffeured automobiles, the women in ball gowns and mink stoles (Angie Dickinson, Maureen O’Hara, Suzanne Pleshette), the men wearing dinner jackets (Edward G. Robinson, Cesar Romero, Buddy Ebsen). The arrival of the movie’s principals aroused muted excitement: Julie Andrews, who played Mary Poppins, had never appeared in a movie before, and Dick Van Dyke—the chimney sweep Bert—became much better known after the film’s release. Then Walt Disney himself arrived, stepping out of a stretch limousine and gallantly reaching a hand into the car to help his wife, Lillian, onto the pavement. Disney was by then immensely famous, appearing on his own television show every Sunday night. He had carefully engineered his entrance: when his car pulled up, the Disney characters mobbed it, and soon afterward clouds of balloons were released into the air. Inside the packed twelve-hundred-seat theatre...
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...with the books in it. As a result of owning a book you would languish for the rest of your days in a government facility. Montag had no problems with his job after all who wouldn’t love getting paid to burn things? Then one day they got a call about a woman who had a whole library of books in her house. When they arrived to do their job only one thing was wrong. The police hadn’t taken the woman away yet. It is here the story begins, with a woman who refuses to leave even as they are dousing her home with kerosene. When they try to remove her she reveals a kitchen match in her hand scaring them out of the house, she then lights the match committing suicide. Shaken by this incident no one talks on the ride back to the station. On his way home Montag runs into his new neighbor, seventeen year old Clarisse McClellan. A chatty, young girl who opens his eyes to the world of nature and not being one of societies stooges. After this meeting Montag returns home to find his wife overdosed on sleeping pills and promptly calls for help. Instead of paramedics he gets two technicians who are nothing more than plumbers for the human body, and their mechanical snake. They use the snake to eat the debris out of her digestive tract and stomach while she is hooked up to a dialysis machine cleaning her blood. His wife Mildred wakes up the next morning with no memory of the event and as happy as ever. As he begins to spend more and more time with Clarisse he grows more and more dissatisfied with...
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...Identification. The name Yugoslavia previously designated six republics (Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzogovia, Croatia, and Slovenia), but now includes just Serbia and Montenegro. The word means "land of the southern Slavs." Montenegro, which means "black mountain," takes its name from its rugged terrain. Within Serbia there are several national cultures. In addition to the dominant Serb tradition, there is a large Hungarian population in the northern province of Vojvodina, where Hungarian is the common language and the culture is highly influenced by Hungary (which borders the province to the north). In southern Serbia, the province of Kosovo is primarily Albanian, and has an Islamic culture that bears many remnants of the earlier Turkish conquest. Location and Geography. Serbia is a landlocked territory in the Balkan Peninsula of Eastern Europe, bordering Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Albania. Montenegro is to the west of Serbia, also bordering Bosnia and Herzogovina, Albania, and the Adriatic Sea. Serbia covers 34,136 square miles (88,412 square kilometers); Montenegro has an area of 5,299 square miles (13,724 square kilometers). Together they are slightly smaller than the state of Kentucky. The terrain varies widely. In the north there are fertile plains that produce most of Serbia's crops, as well as marshlands along the Sava and Danube Rivers. At the northern border, the Danube River runs along the Iron...
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